Smartwatch market dynamics in Q1 2022: WearOS invigorates sales

The smartwatch market, frankly stagnant in recent years, experienced a major shake-up last summer.

When was the release of the long-awaited SamsungGalaxy Watch 4 based on Google's Wear OS. Already in the fall, Apple's share began to decline, giving way to solutions based on WearOS, and the market began to actively grow. And, according to a recent report from Counterpoint Research, the growing momentum continued in the first quarter of 2022: during this period, global shipments of smartwatches grew by 13% compared to Q1 2021.

Still occupying more than a third of the Apple marketincreased sales by 14%, but even taking this into account, its share increased slightly: from 35.9% to 36.1%. But Samsung's share is growing much more noticeably: from 7.8% a year earlier to 10.1% of the market now, which is explained by a 46% increase in sales (primarily due to the Galaxy Watch 4). Surprisingly, Huawei shows itself stably, although it lost a small percentage of the market (from 8.1 to 7.2%), but retained the volume of shipments. But even more interesting is Xiaomi, which has risen to the 4th place in the ranking with a 69% increase in sales. As follows from the report, the company hits a record of shipments every quarter, although the largest part of sales falls on the budget segment under $100.

American Garmin, which became the fifth in volumesupplies, ranks third in terms of income due to the high average price tag - the vast majority of watches sold are in the premium segment above $500. Amazfit shows slow but steady development, while imoo, a subsidiary of BBK, is losing share and showing double-digit supply cuts. Regarding the prospects for the smartwatch market, researchers expect a slowdown, the main reason for which is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which is already having a negative impact on the activity of the European consumer.

© Vladimir Kovalev.

Sourced from counterpointresearch.com